Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 2018-02-20

Chapter 11. General Utilities

desktop-file-utils-0.23

Introduction to Desktop File Utils

The Desktop File Utils package
contains command line utilities for working with Desktop
entries. These utilities are used by Desktop Environments and
other applications to manipulate the MIME-types application
databases and help adhere to the Desktop Entry Specification.

This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS-8.1
platform.

Installation of Desktop File Utils

Configuring Desktop File Utils

Configuration Information

The
XDG Base Directory specification defines the standard
locations for applications to place data and configuration files.
These files can be used, for instance, to define the menu
structure and menu items in a desktop environment.

The default location for configuration files to be installed is
/etc/xdg, and the default locations
for data files are /usr/local/share
and /usr/share. These locations can
be extended with the environment variables XDG_CONFIG_DIRS and XDG_DATA_DIRS, respectively. The GNOME, KDE
and XFCE environments respect
these settings.

When a package installs a .desktop
file to a location in one of the base data directories, the
database that maps MIME-types to available applications can be
updated. For instance, the cache file at /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache can be
rebuilt by executing the following command as the root user: